Photo Daily | December 10 | Dinamo Zagreb’s Bad Blue Boys

Photo Daily this week moves from Serbia to Croatia, the words for the descriptions below courtesy of a man who was a lot happier than me when Croatia beat England last month.
This is a memorial outside Dinamo Zagreb’s stadium which reads: “To all Dinamo
Zagreb fans for whom the war began on 13/5 1990 at Maksimir stadium and who ended giving their lives at the altar of their home nation Croatia. BBB Zagreb 13/5/1994”

The 13th May 1990 is referring to the day when Red Star Belgrade visited Zagreb and chaos erupted on the stands, ending with a pitch invasion where Zvonimir Boban famously kung-fu kicked a police officer who was beating a Dinamo Zagreb supporter. Belgrade fans had broken down the fence on the southern stands then started to fight with home supporters. The police stood back and simply watched it, which was not well taken by the hardcore Dinamo fans on the opposite end (outside which the memorial is standing) who in turn broke down their fence and took to the field.

It is claimed that this day played a decisive part in the war for independence erupting, a war in which many at the front lines were recruited from the Bad Blue Boys.

Each year the BBB president visits “the shrine of the Croatian knights” to honour those who wore the BBB badge on their uniform.

Football was so intimately connected with the collapse of the Balkans, and the violence there; I wish I understood the intricacies of those relationships more clearly. (And, Tom, I assume you’re read Jonathan Wilson’s Behind the Curtain? It’s enormously depressing, but a really amazing read.)

That’s an excellent book, Martha, and definitely a topic we should cover in depth sometime. But I was even wary to write these pieces myself, it’s very hard to grasp all the intricacies without having been there.

January 16, 2009 at 11:49 pmSerbian

Its really not a good thing to do…we should show sportsmanship in the society too…When I was in school, we used to fight like dogs and cats..but it took almost 3 years to learn that this is for the game…we need to show respect to the winners..and the most important thing I learn was that losers make better persons if taken in good spirit…